Chapter 4: Nothing Left to Lose
“Okay, let’s go over this one more time,” Flash said, sitting in the driver’s seat of his car with Twilight and Sunset in tow. “You saw my stepbrother leave the restaurant with the Dazzlings, and now we’re trying to find them because you think they might be leading him into some sort of trouble, and all we have to go on is what their van looks like and the general direction you saw them drive off in?”
“Yes!” Sunset retorted. “Now, hurry up and drive already. We don’t know what those sirens are planning, and we want to get there before they have chance to do it.”
“Sunset, I don’t mean to question your judgment, but you do realize that there’s a good chance that they just invited him over for a little, you know, ‘good time’, right?”
“Hey, I saw how Adagio was talking to him. She was putting way too much effort into the conversation for her to just want him over for a ‘good time.’ If all she wanted was that, she’d go for someone that she can pick up, use, throw away, and never have to think about again.”
“Now, how would you know that?” Twilight asked, looking back at her best friend quizzically.
“I don’t. I am, however, VERY good at putting myself into the mindset of a bad girl.”
“Well, okay,” Flash conceded. “We trust you, but if it turns out that he’s not in trouble, you owe me gas money.”
With that, Flash continued to drive as his passengers scanned the streets and parking areas for a stylishly trashy, purple, and green van with a diamond decal inside a painted star on the hood.
Meanwhile, Aria had just pulled into the parking lot of the Canterlot City Park. Adagio and Sonata climbed out and opened the trunk followed by Coin Bank.
“So, what is this errand of yours that you need me to do for you?” Coin asked as the girls pretended to struggle with the shovel in the trunk.
“As you can see,” Adagio began, gesturing to herself and Sonata, “we found something that might be incredibly valuable in the park, but this shovel is just SO heavy. If you help us, we promise we can make it worth your while.”
“Uh, how?” Coin retorted flirtatiously. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, señorita, but I’m already loaded. What can you possibly give me that’ll make me want to commit vandalism AND do menial work for you?”
“How does a few rounds of drinks and once with each of us sound?” Aria nonchalantly offered after she got out of the driver’s seat.
Coin Bank’s eyes widened as an appreciative smirk spread across his lips.
“Throw in one more time with all of you at once, and I’d rob a bank for you,” he exclaimed eagerly, practically yanking the shovel out of the trunk.
The three sirens shared smirks and stifled snickers with each other before Aria began leading the group towards the tree-covered area of the park. Adagio and Sonata hung at the back whispering to each other.
“Good call going with the tourist,” Sonata whispered to her older sister. “There’s no way that cute guitar boy would have fallen for our tricks this easy. By the way, we’re not really going to, uh, ‘pay’ him, are we?”
“Ugh, no, of course not,” Adagio hissed, rolling her eyes, “but he doesn’t know that, and by the time we get what we want, it’ll be too late for him to do anything about it.”
The two of them stifled another shared snicker and ran up to catch up with Aria and Coin.
Flash, Twilight, and Sunset were still driving around looking for the Dazzling’s van when Flash decided to ask Sunset an interesting question.
“Uh, Sunset,” Flash began, “I know you can’t answer this question without invading my stepbrother’s privacy even more than you already have, but just how messed up is he? Can you at least give me some context for why he is the way he is?”
Sunset bit her lip as she shifted in her seat uncomfortably, Coin Bank’s memories still fresh in her mind.
“Uh, how much do you already know?” Sunset replied.
“Just that he’s from a rich family and that my dad is his mom’s third husband at least and his uncle’s legal partner,” Flash answered.
“Didn’t we also overhear him and his mom say something about him getting in trouble during Spring Break of last year?” Twilight added.
“Yeah, that too. He also doesn’t seem to like his family and seems to really not want to go home for some reason.”
Sunset sighed, “I can’t go into too much detail, but let’s just say he has ways of dealing with his problems that just create more problems for him and everyone else.”
“I’m assuming one of them involves alcohol.”
“Among other things.”
“Flash, over there!” Twilight cried pointing out her passenger side window. Flash and Sunset turned to where she was pointing and saw the Dazzling’s van parked just outside the Canterlot City Park.
Flash pulled over and parked next to the van. The three of them got out and looked the van over, but it didn’t seem to have any passengers. They rushed into the park and worriedly began to look every which way.
“Where could they have gone?” Flash cried.
Before she or Twilight could answer, Sunset felt an odd, dark chill spread over her. It was barely a tingle, but she felt it, nonetheless.
“Did you guys feel that?” she gasped, turning to Flash and Twilight.
“Feel what?” Twilight asked, looking at her best friend in confusion.
“It’s coming from over there.” Sunset pointed towards the trees and took a few steps toward them, the chill growing stronger as she did so.
“Wait. You don’t think those girls found Equestrian magic, do you?”
“I think they did, but it sure doesn’t feel like the user-friendly kind,” Sunset worriedly answered before breaking into a run.
“Okay, if the magic that turned you two into demons and Gloriosa into Poison Ivy was supposed to be user-friendly, I’d hate to see what the really bad stuff is like,” Flash shouted as he and Twilight ran after Sunset.
Coin Bank had no idea how long he had been digging for, but he had moved about two and a half feet of earth when he suddenly hit stone. He bent over and brushed away the remaining dirt revealing a stone plaque with a strange emblem on it. The emblem consisted of a pony head with a long, smoky mane and a long, sharp, curved horn surrounded by two sharp wings and black flames.
“Hey, this what you’re looking for?” he called to the sirens.
Adagio and her sisters bent forward to take a closer look at it, but before they could study the emblem thoroughly, a bright red glow came out from one of each sister’s pockets. The three of them looked in their respective pockets and saw that the shards they had salvaged from their necklaces’ destruction were lighting up brighter than they had since the necklaces were still whole.
The three of them shared wicked smiles with each other before Adagio called back, “I think so. Go ahead and try to open it.”
Coin saw a small gap between the plaque and the rest of the ground and forced the tip of the shovel into it. Using the shovel as a lever, he attempted to pry the plaque off the hole it was covering. At that moment, Sunset, Flash, and Twilight came running in screaming for him to stop.
“Drop everything and get away from whatever you just dug up!” Sunset screamed as she and her companions skidded to a stop.
“You have no idea what you’re getting into,” Flash added.
“Oh, and you do?” Adagio retorted, facing the newcomers with her arms crossed.
“You could get yourselves and everyone in the park killed!” Twilight pointed out.
Coin paid no attention to the above argument and simply kept pushing against the plaque. Finally, he managed to pop the plaque off the opening ever so slightly. That was all it took to release whatever had been trapped on the other side.
The plaque was sent flying out of the hole Coin had dug and landed right between Sunset and Adagio. A massive pillar of black smoke burst out of the opening. Flash rushed forward, grabbed his stepbrother, and pulled him away from the dark entity as it began to shape itself into the form of shadowy black alicorn. The alicorn touched down where Coin had been standing sending small tremors along the ground.
“At last, I am free,” the alicorn bellowed triumphantly in a voice like a shallow grave. Then, it let out a pained cry as its form dissolved into an amorphous shape before slowly reforming only to dissolve again.
Sunset took a good look at the plaque and gasped when she saw the emblem on it.
“Guys, run!” she yelled, grabbing Twilight and running away from the shadow. The sirens, Coin Bank, and Flash followed behind her. They didn’t stop until they reached the edge of the park.
Once they had stopped, Sunset grabbed Adagio by the front of her shirt and screamed, “YOU UNLEASHED THE PONY OF SHADOWS?!”
“We didn’t know it was the Pony of Shadows that was trapped down there,” Adagio retorted defensively, pushing Sunset off her.
“Oh, really? Well, THE PLAQUE SHOULD HAVE MADE IT OBVIOUS!”
“Oohh,” Sonata exclaimed, “you know, I was wondering why that plaque seemed scarily familiar.”
“Wait,” Coin cried out in realization, “you had me dig up that hole knowing that something potentially bad could be down there?”
The sirens' disdainful scowls gave him his answer.
“You weren’t planning on taking me out for drinks at all, were you?” he continued.
Twilight slapped the back of his head and snapped, “I don’t think that’s the key issue right now, and—”
She looked at everyone present and noticed someone was missing.
“Hey, everyone, where’s Flash?” she squeaked out.
“Everybody, get out of here now!” she heard Flash call out from a distance. Twilight turned around and saw that Flash was still in the park, running around and warning everyone else to escape.
“Ugh! That stupid Colt Scout is going to get himself killed,” Aria groaned.
Suddenly, a black cloud rushed out of the wooded area and landed right in the middle of the park sending tremors out from where it landed. The tremors caused Flash to lose his balance and land on his bottom as all the other park patrons continued to run away. The black blob reformed into the shape of an alicorn.
“I,” it huffed wearily, “must find a host.” It looked up searching for the closest living being in the park. It’s glowing pupil-less eyes landed right on Flash who was rushing to get back on his feet. “Perfect.”
“Flash, get out of there!” Sunset cried in warning, but she was too late. The shadowy alicorn allowed its form to dissolve into a cloud again and rushed at Flash, completely enveloping him. Flash screamed in pain as the Pony of Shadows worked its dark magic on him.
“No!” Twilight screamed, running back into the park.
“Twilight! Wait!” Sunset cried as she ran after her best friend.
Flash fell on his back and writhed on the floor as the shadow took over. His whole body felt like it was on fire. He covered his ears as voices began to scream at him from inside his head, but they only grew louder and louder.
“What the heck is wrong with you?! You stupid, good-for-nothing kid!” the voice of his father shouted at him.
“You really thought we had something special between us, that you actually meant something to me. Well, news flash, you’re NOTHING to me, and you don’t mean a thing to anyone else either, never had, never will.” That was Sunset’s voice.
“I hate you! You’re the worst big brother in the world! I wish you had died instead of Grandpa!” That was his brother’s.
He could hear other people screaming insults and condemnations at him. Some were words that were actually spoken; others merely reflected the negative emotions that Flash associated with the speakers.
“You’re such a creep and a nuisance. Why do you think I chose Timber over you?” said Twilight’s voice. She never actually said those words nor ever held that low of an opinion about him, but that never stopped Flash from thinking she that was how she really felt before they began dating.
As bad as hearing his family, friends, acquaintances, and the love of his life tear him down repeatedly was, that was far from the most painful torture the dark magic subjected Flash to. No, what hurt the most were the words that Flash had spoken against himself and other people.
“What’s the point?! I’ll just mess everything up again. I always mess up. I’m just a stupid, no-good kid that my own dad didn’t even want to show up for!”
“What I do with my life is none of your business, so stay out of it!”
“You really think you're gonna help them?! Ha! I bet you have no idea what you're even doing!”
“Now that's the bad girl we love to hate!”
Every hurtful word he was subjected to felt like it was burning right into his flesh and bone causing him to scream in pain repeatedly.
“Flash!” Twilight cried, still trying to reach her fiancé with Sunset following behind her. However, before either of them could reach him, a shockwave rippled through the air knocking the two of them to the ground. A wave of black fire followed, and the two girls shielded their faces with their arms. Even though the magic fire did no physical damage, they both could still feel the heat and pain licking and stabbing their exposed skin.
When the heat and pain finally died down, Twilight and Sunset lowered their arms just in time to see something or someone emerge from the shadow. It was upright on two legs and was about Flash’s height. The being’s appearance was like Flash’s but was significantly altered. It had hair like black flames and blank pupil-less eyes like burning coals. It was dressed completely in black metal with black plate armor covering its legs and torso and black chainmail sleeves covering its arms. From its back, two sharp, shadowy black wings spread out.
Twilight looked up at the being and uttered out a single word, “F-F-Flash?”
The dark entity looked Twilight straight in the eyes and replied darkly, “Who the heck is Flash?”
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Out of the frying pan and into the fire
Wow... okay I did not expect to see the Pony of Shadows here, or that he would possess Flash.
Okay, I expected the Dazzlings to make the offer to him, but now I wonder just what is so bad with Coin's home life that he would make a kinky suggestion like that?
Talk about screwed priories. You accidentally unleash a monster and are more upset that three girls were lying about paying for some drinks and having sex with you.
I'm sorry I'm late, but WOW! I wasn't expecting a corrupted Flash when I started reading this story, but I'm pleasently surprised! Ow, his corruption here is way more painful than it is in my story
I just want my boy to be okay!